Little Gardening Videos

Lately, I’ve begun using the video function on Instagram to shoot some quick, informal videos in my garden. I’ve stayed away from video in the past because of the work involved in shooting, editing, etc. But the other day as I was in my garden cleaning up a bed, it suddenly occurred to me that

Shallots, onions, leeks, and other edible alliums

Growing Bonus Onions in a Small Space

I have a “stick them wherever they’ll fit” attitude towards onions, shallots, garlic, and leeks. While most edible alliums grow to be their biggest and best when the soil is rich and the sun is bright, I often start the season with more allium seedlings and sets than ideal space in which to plant them.

multiplier onion tohono oodham iitoi

Sonoran Desert Multiplier Onion: Tohono O’odham I’Itoi

I have long sung the praises of the perpetual aka perennial onion. Allow a few to multiply each year and you will have them forever. I started growing one such type, ‘Egyptian Walking’ onion (Allium proliferum) aka tree onion in my community garden plot well over a decade ago. The exact date is a lost

eggs in bed of garden veggies

Soft Eggs on a Bed of Spring Garden Vegetables

This recipe came about on a weekend afternoon as I was puttering around in the garden weeding and thinning out crops that were too closely planted. Radishes were the main culprit. I don’t plant them in rows or in a dedicated space for that matter. Instead, I pop the seeds into gaps here, there, and

All About Planting Onion and Shallot Sets

The other day I wrote about hardening off onion and leek seedlings. This week I am planting out onion and shallot “sets”. Planting sets may seem redundant since I already have seedlings on the go, but I assure you there is a method to this madness. In my house, we cook with shallots and onions

Preparing Onion and Leek Seedlings to Go Outdoors

I’m currently in the process of hardening off the first round of onion and leek seedlings in preparation for permanently planting them outside. To recap, here’s the planting calendar that I follow:

How to Grow Onions, Shallots, and Leek from Seed

The following are a few tips gleaned from my own past blunders and successes in growing onions, shallots, leeks, and other alliums to help you get started with yours. Onions & Shallots: Depending on the type, onions are fairly flexible plants that will tolerate a certain amount of rule-breaking on your part. Bunching onions aka

The Annual, Let’s Buy Even More Italian Edibles Seed

It’s become a tradition and now that I live in an Italian neighbourhood it’s pretty much a requirement. When my local Italian greengrocer set out the seed rack I did a little happy dance, and it was then that I knew I was doomed to buy more seed than I will ever have room to

February at the Community Garden

We popped over to the community garden yesterday afternoon with a frozen pail of compost. I thought I would take some pictures so you can see what it looks like in the middle of winter. As you can see, not much is happening. Drab and dull. We stop using our plots between October/November and March/April

‘Mini Purplette’ Onions

Every year I go a little nuts growing large crops of onions such as ‘Egyptian Walking’ over at my community garden plot. Onions grow easily in the ground, but they tend to take up a lot of space in containers. In the past I have grown smaller, bunching onions in pots as a way to

Onion Seedlings

Don’t onion seedlings make you think of tiny little alien tentacles or periscopes rising up from the soil? p.s. If you sow too much, the sprouts are edible, too.

There WILL Be Onions

I am still working on getting warm season transplants into the community garden plot. I’m still working on same on the roof for that matter. I was a little gun shy this spring, following on the heels of last year’s June 5 Curcubit killing cold snap. While that didn’t happen this year, I was relieved